Tablet Plus

La Bandita

19.5

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From €195
(approx. $211)
Check availability as rates may vary for dates. Best rate guaranteed.

Like any of the world’s top travel destinations, Tuscany is capable of showing visitors a few different faces. Leading approaches include the lap-of-luxury grand-hotel treatment, and the theatrical and painstakingly authentic traditional-farmhouse treatment. Add to those a new angle, one that’s been sadly difficult to come by: the casual and unpretentious “just a friendly little guesthouse” approach, perhaps best exemplified by La Bandita, splendidly isolated at the end of a rough dirt road in the Val d’Orcia.

It’s split into six stylish modern bedrooms, with one open-plan living space for the whole house, and a central kitchen, where from time to time you’ll dine family-style with your fellow guests and with your hosts, a refugee from the American music industry and his travel-journalist wife. While a lot of hotels pay lip service to the idea of home-style hospitality, La Bandita actually follows through — in fact the atmosphere is so gregarious and friendly that privacy freaks and reclusive-novelist types may actually prefer to look elsewhere.

The rest of us, though, will enjoy the scenery, the thoughtful freebies (wi-fi, breakfast, coffee, bottled water), and the company. Your hosts know the area well and can direct you to any number of restaurants, vineyards, sights; but if you’re more in the mood to hide out poolside, they’re more than happy to have you.

Please note: La Bandita operates seasonally and is closed from November through March.

This hotel includes the following special privileges for Plus Members only: